Wednesday, January 19, 2011

Quotes, Notes, and Links: Atlanta Hawks 93 Miami Heat 89 (OT)

"I’ve been saying since I got here, when we help each other and everybody is on a string we are one of the top teams in the league. We did that tonight. We helped, and we rotated out and everybody was moving. When we are that active, we are real good."

Josh Smith on defending LeBron James much of the game:

"It’s so hard to be able to guard so many re-screens. You find your legs getting tired. They beat you up on the screens. But it’s all mental for me and I just fought through it. I wanted to suck it up and be able to stand up for my team."

Larry Drew on Smith's defense:

"I thought he did a real good job against him. He’s out there flapping around, but I do think his length bothers people. And he has the ability to erase a mistake when he gets beat off the dribble when someone goes to the basket."

Joe Johnson made three good plays in a row down the stretch in overtime---a heady drive and kick to Jamal for a three when the game glitched and the Heat weren't paying attention to Joe until he drove to the hoop in transition, a strong take to the hoop where he bumped LeBron off balance and hit a baseline floater, and a terrific pass to Josh Smith out of a nearly half court double team, and Smoove finishing the play.

Those three plays were two more than the Heat made, where they decided that LeBron had to keep on taking looooong three point attempts to win. Only one of those three went in and the Hawks hit the free throws down the stretch to win.

If Tuesday's loss to the Atlanta Hawks revealed nothing else about the ailing Miami Heat, it showed that Chris Bosh might be the most irreplaceable player on the roster.

Not the best overall.

That would be LeBron James, who returned from a two-game injury absence with a performance that was equal parts rusty and resilient in shooting the Heat out of, then back into and ultimately back out of the game in Tuesday's 93-89 overtime loss to the Hawks.

And Bosh is far from the most explosive member of the Heat's Big Three.

That would be Dwyane Wade, who can take over at any moment and string together 15-point quarters, 20-point halves and 40-point games as fast as LeBron can create a Twitter controversy. That, in itself, makes Wade's disappearing act in the extra period a bit baffling, considering he didn't attempt a shot.

But Bosh, for all of his far-too-frequent settling for perimeter jumpers and occasional reluctance to get his hands and game dirty in the post, is simply the one player the Heat can least afford to lose to injury for any sustained period of time.

These two teams combined to take 61 shots from three on the night even though combined they made just 14 (23 percent). That kind of sums up this game — a lot of bad decisions and missed shots. This game was very entertaining. It was filled with sloppy but it was still fun to watch.